PDF-(EBOOK)-A Short History of Nearly Everything

One of the worlds most beloved and bestselling writers takes his ultimate journey into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answerIn A Walk in the Woods Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail well most of it In In A Sunburned Country he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer Now in his biggest book he confronts his greatest challenge to understand and if possible answer the oldest biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us To that end he has attached himself to a host of the worlds most advanced and often obsessed archaeologists anthropologists and mathematicians travelling to their offices laboratories and field camps He has read or tried to read their books pestered them with questions apprenticed himself to their powerful minds A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest and it is a sometimes profound sometimes funny and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge as only Bill Bryson can render it Science has never been more involving or entertainingLength 18 hours 13 minutes. subtitled A Short History of Modern Delusions only to find that the item had been retitled over here to the indigestible formation above By now coldspurcomIdiotProofhtm Thorne Smith Books New Rare Used Books Alibris Marketplace Idiot Proof A Shor By Emma Grace Mason. “The terms "bench" and "form" can be used interchangeably to refer to backless and elongated wooden seating. Originally a bench may have been freestanding and movable, whereas a form referred to a bench fixed to the wall. Furthermore, the term “bench” has acquired the additional meaning of a work surface, such as a cabinetmaker’s workbench.”. Robert PringleINDONESIA144S HINDU REALMHALFTITLE PAGESBali 26/9/03 239 PM Page 2Ni Wayan Zoe and Ni Made PenelopeShort History of Bali 8/6/04 505 PM Page vAcknowledgments and a word on names spe A physician says, I have an ethical obligation never to cause the death of a patient, another responds, My ethical obligation is to relieve pain even if the patient dies. The current argument over the role of physicians in assisting patients to die constantly refers to the ethical dutiesof the profession. References to the Hippocratic Oath are often heard. Many modern problems, from assisted suicide to accessible health care, raise questions about the traditional ethics of medicine and the medical profession. However, few know what the traditional ethics are and how they cameinto being. This book provides a brief tour of the complex story of medical ethics evolved over centuries in both Western and Eastern cultures. It sets this story in the social and cultural contexts in which the work of healing was practiced and suggests that, behind the many different perceptionsabout the ethical duties of physicians, certain themes appear constantly, and may be relevant to modern debates. The book begins with the Hippocratic Medicine of ancient Greece, moves throught the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Enlightenment in Europe, and the long history of Indian and Chinesemedicine, ending as the problems raised modern medical science and technology challenge the settled ethics of the long tradition. In 1883, Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, coined the word eugenics to express his dream of perfecting the human race by applying the laws of genetic heredity. Adapting Darwin\'s theory of evolution to human society, eugenics soon became a powerful, international movement, committed to using the principles of heredity and statistics to encourage healthy and discourage unhealthy reproduction. Early in the twentieth century and across the world, doctors, social reformers, and politicians turned to the new science of eugenics as a means to improve and strengthen their populations. Eugenics advocates claimed their methods would result in healthier, fitter babies and would dramatically limit human suffering. The reality was a different story. In the name of scientific progress and of human improvement, eugenicists targeted the weak and the sick, triggering coercive legislation on issues as disparate as race, gender, immigration, euthanasia, abortion, sterilization, intelligence, mental illness, and disease control. Nationalists eagerly embraced eugenics as a means to legitimize their countries\' superiority and racialized assumptions, and the Nazis notoriously used eugenics to shape their final solution. In this lucid volume, Philippa Levine tackles the intricate and controversial history of eugenics, masterfully synthesizing the enormous range of policies and experiments carried out in the name of eugenics around the world throughout the twentieth century. She questions the widespread belief that eugenics disappeared after World War II and evaluates the impact of eugenics on current reproductive and genetic sciences. Charting the development of such controversial practices as artificial insemination, sperm donation, and population control, this book offers a powerful, extraordinarily timely reflection on the frequent interplay between genetics and ethics. Eugenics may no longer be a household word, but we feel its effects even today. A radical retelling of humanity\'s restless, genetically mingled history based on the revolutionary science of archaeogenetics.In this eye-opening book, Johannes Krause, director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and journalist Thomas Trappe offer a new way of understanding our past, present, and future. Krause is a pioneer in the revolutionary new science of archaeogenetics, archaeology augmented by revolutionary DNA sequencing technology, which has allowed scientists to uncover a new version of human history reaching back more than 100,000 years. Using this technology to re-examine human bones from the distant past, Krause has been able to map not only the genetic profiles of the dead, but also their ancient journeys.In this concise narrative he tells us their long-forgotten stories of migration and intersection. It\'s well known that many human populations carry genetic material from Neanderthals but, as Krause and his colleagues discovered, we also share DNA with a newly uncovered human form, the Denisovans. We know now that a wave of farmers from Anatolia migrated into Europe 8,000 years ago, essentially displacing the dark-skinned, blue-eyed hunter-gatherers who preceded them. The farmer DNA is one of the core genetic components of contemporary Europeans and European Americans. Though the first people to cross into North and South America have long been assumed to be primarily of East Asian descent, we now know that they also share DNA with contemporary Europeans and European Americans. Genetics has an unfortunate history of smuggling in racist ideologies, but our most cutting-edge science tells us that genetic categories in no way reflect national borders.Krause vividly introduces us to prehistoric cultures such as the Aurignacians, innovative artisans who carved animals, people, and even flutes from bird bones more than 40,000 years ago the Varna, who buried their loved ones with gold long before the Pharaohs of Egypt and the Gravettians, big-game hunters who were Europe\'s most successful early settlers until they perished in the ice age. This informed retelling of the human epic confirms that immigration and genetic mingling have always defined our species and that who we are is a question of culture not genetics. \"Perfect for ages 8 to 80!Adapted from A Short History of Nearly Everything, this stunningly illustrated book from Bill Bryson takes us from the Big Bang to the dawn of science, and everything in between! Ever wondered how we got from nothing to something?Or thought about how we can weigh the earth?Or wanted to reach the edge of the universe?Uncover the mysteries of time, space and life on earth in this extraordinary book - a journey from the centre of the planet, to the dawn of the dinosaurs, and everything in between. And discover our own incredible journey, from single cell to civilisation, including the brilliant (and sometimes very bizarre) scientists who helped us find out the how and why.The ideal book for curious young readers everywhere. ************************************************************************Reviews for
A Short History of Nearly Everything:
\'It\'s the sort of book I would have devoured as a teenager. It might well turn unsuspecting young readers into scientists.\' Evening Standard\'I doubt that a better book for the layman about the findings of modern science has been written\' Sunday Telegraph \'A thoroughly enjoyable, as well as educational, experience. Nobody who reads it will ever look at the world around them in the same way again\' Daily Express \'The very book I have been looking for most of my life\' Daily Mail\" Illustrated with 120 superb pieces, Glass: A Short History brings to life a centuries-old craft that has served many purposes, styles, and cultures. Until the first century BC, glass was made only in Western Asia, Egypt, and the Mediterranean regions its manufacture then spread to China and other areas. The peoples of the Roman Empire included the most versatile glassmakers in the ancient world, leading to both widely available low-cost  glassware and stunning  luxury glass. During  the Middle Ages, Islamic glassworkers  decorated  their fine cut glass with gilding and brilliant enamel. In the 15th century, the focus of luxury glassmaking shifted to Venice. Glassmaking  in Europe  was transformed again in the 17th  century, when thick-walled  objects with cut and engraved ornament were in great demand. By the nineteenth century,  glassmaking was well established in America, where, as in Europe, industrial processes were developed to supply the rapidly expanding population with glassware for daily use. Within the past 50 years glass has gained acceptance as a medium for artistic expression, and the Studio Glass Movement, born in the United  States, has inspired artists all over the world to explore its unique properties. Glass tells this sweeping story from ancient times to the present in an accessible text with gorgeous examples. Until the publication of this book, historians had largely neglected the effects of technology on the course of human history. Political, economic, and social factors had long been taken into account, but technological advances were not studied in the context of the history of the ages in which they occurred. It remained for the authors of this readable, profusely illustrated survey to relate technological developments to the history of each epoch. Chronologically, the text is divided into two parts, the first telling the story up to ca. A.D. 1750 — the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Britain — and the second continuing it up to 1900. The book begins with a general historical survey of ancient civilizations, then goes on to consider such topics as food production, metalworking, building construction, early sources of power, and the beginning of the chemical industry. The second and lengthier portion of the text focuses on the development of the steam engine, machine tools, modern transport, mining coal and metals, the rise of the modern chemical industry, textiles, the internal combustion engine, electricity, and more. To help relate the technology to the age, each section is preceded by a historical introduction and the book concludes with a series of tables designed to show the interrelation of events names in the text. Profusely illustrated and brimming with factual data, A Short History of Technology will appeal equally to students, scholars, historians of technology, and general readers. Each time history repeats itself, so it’s said, the price goes up. The twentieth century was a time of runaway growth in human population, consumption, and technology, placing a colossal load on all natural systems, especially earth, air, and water — the very elements of life. The most urgent questions of the twenty-first century are: Where will this growth lead? Can it be consolidated or sustained? And what kind of world is our present bequeathing to our future?In his #1 national bestseller A Short History of Progress Ronald Wright argues that our modern predicament is as old as civilization, a 10,000-year experiment we have participated in but seldom controlled. Only by understanding the patterns of triumph and disaster that humanity has repeated around the world since the Stone Age can we recognize the experiment’s inherent dangers, and, with luck and wisdom, shape its outcome. Illustrated with 120 superb pieces, Glass: A Short History brings to life a centuries-old craft that has served many purposes, styles, and cultures. Until the first century BC, glass was made only in Western Asia, Egypt, and the Mediterranean regions its manufacture then spread to China and other areas. The peoples of the Roman Empire included the most versatile glassmakers in the ancient world, leading to both widely available low-cost  glassware and stunning  luxury glass. During  the Middle Ages, Islamic glassworkers  decorated  their fine cut glass with gilding and brilliant enamel. In the 15th century, the focus of luxury glassmaking shifted to Venice. Glassmaking  in Europe  was transformed again in the 17th  century, when thick-walled  objects with cut and engraved ornament were in great demand. By the nineteenth century,  glassmaking was well established in America, where, as in Europe, industrial processes were developed to supply the rapidly expanding population with glassware for daily use. Within the past 50 years glass has gained acceptance as a medium for artistic expression, and the Studio Glass Movement, born in the United  States, has inspired artists all over the world to explore its unique properties. Glass tells this sweeping story from ancient times to the present in an accessible text with gorgeous examples. What is innovation? How is innovation used in business? How can we use it to succeed?Innovation, the ways ideas are made valuable, plays an essential role in economic and social development, and is an increasingly topical issue. Over the last 150 years our world has hit an accelerated rate of transformation. From airplanes to television to penicillin, and from radios to frozen food to digital money, the fruits of innovation surround us.Innovation: A Very Short Introduction looks at what innovation is and why it affects us so profoundly. It examines how it occurs, who stimulates it, how it is pursued, and what its outcomes are, both positive and negative. Considering innovation today, and discussing future disruptive technologies such as AI, which have important implications for work and employment, Mark Dodgson and David Gann consider the extent to which our understanding of innovation has developed over the past century and how it might be used to interpret the global economy. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable. Each time history repeats itself, so it’s said, the price goes up. The twentieth century was a time of runaway growth in human population, consumption, and technology, placing a colossal load on all natural systems, especially earth, air, and water — the very elements of life. The most urgent questions of the twenty-first century are: Where will this growth lead? Can it be consolidated or sustained? And what kind of world is our present bequeathing to our future?In his #1 national bestseller A Short History of Progress Ronald Wright argues that our modern predicament is as old as civilization, a 10,000-year experiment we have participated in but seldom controlled. Only by understanding the patterns of triumph and disaster that humanity has repeated around the world since the Stone Age can we recognize the experiment’s inherent dangers, and, with luck and wisdom, shape its outcome. The Benefits of Reading Books